1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to enclosures for domestic fowl to encourage the laying of eggs and more particularly to a new and improved automatic enclosure nest for domestic fowl that will include a fowl operable movable nest floor to automatically remove and collect eggs laid by the fowl while in the nest when the fowl has been ejected from the nest.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of enclosure devices developed to encourage the laying of eggs by domestic fowl, particularly turkeys, are known in the prior art. These include devices such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,188,911 wherein a cooperatively operable fowl ejector member and egg removal member operate to remove the fowl from the nest and collect the egg from the nest through the same mechanical arrangement. There are other known automatic rollaway nests for turkeys wherein the turkey will nest on an inclined floor and the laid egg will roll from that floor to a collecting receptacle. In these particular devices, while the floor is inclined, it is not movable and the egg is removed immediately after being laid to the collecting receptacle.
While prior art devices of this nature do have traps and ejectors, they do not have independently operating trap and ejector members. This co-dependence with respect to these two components in some cases restricts the operation of the device and requires a manual intervention to free up the system for continued efficient operation.
Enclosure nests of this nature are usually grouped so that the ejection operation can be simultaneously provided by a single ejector operating means for plurality of nests. The nest configurations usually run from 20 to 30 in number to form a group, and for the most part all groups are operated in unison which results in many instances in a complete nonavailability of nests when all nests are occupied. Such limitations have an impact on the production of eggs and are consequently undesirable.
Prior art enclosure nests are usually of a fixed dimension so that the nest configuration is not susceptible to change in size to accommodate fowl of differing weight and dimensions in different laying coops.
With these considerations in mind, a comparison will now be made between prior art devices discussed previously and the disclosure comprising the present inventive concept.